updated 01:55 pm EST, Sun February 10, 2008

Sony-Ericsson Xperia X1

Sony-Ericsson opened the Mobile World Congress today by unveiling the XPERIA X1, its first true touchscreen-focused cellphone. Following a deal with Microsoft, the handset is Sony-Ericsson's first device to use Windows Mobile for its OS but also uses a custom interface of "XPERIA panels" rather than the default Microsoft front-end: users simply tap panels with their fingers to access calling, media, and other functions, according to the phone designer. Though dominated by its 3-inch, 800x480 touchscreen, the device also includes both optical and physical navigation pads at the bottom as well as a unique arc-slider QWERTY keyboard that tilts outward for more comfortable typing.

The X1 is also the most Internet-connected Sony-Ericsson device in history, the company boasts: unlike even most advanced 3G phones, it offers HSUPA (High Speed Upload Packet Access) that sends video and other media almost as quickly as it comes downstream. Wi-Fi is onboard for short-range networking and is backed by assisted GPS for route finding. A 3.2-megapixel camera with autofocus and a microSD slot (versus Sony-Ericsson's favorite Memory Stick Micro format) round out its key features.

The first XPERIA phone is expected sometime in the second half of 2008; with quad-band GSM and an unprecedented five-band HSPA/UMTS connection, the device should be available both in North America as well as Europe and includes the key 1,700MHz band needed for T-Mobile USA's upcoming 3G service.

hmm

yuck

is it just me, or are all these "iphone killers" just bloody awful looking? and if you want to be a true "iphone killer", you better start with a different OS than microsoft's windoze mobile. i wouldn't put $0.99 into this product.

don't be a robot

some people like qwerty - not everyone is you + there is plenty of room in this world for style variance from apple's 'ultra-neutral' approach.

this is by far the coolest thing sony has done in a long time. I don't care much for Windows Mobile, but this phone looks better than a crackberry/palm/n95 imho - and if it has 'Windoze' I'm more likely to be able to get it supported by my company. (oh yeah, corporations use windows hmm).

btw. it would be good to look into who exactly is labeling these phones 'iPhone killers' -- do you think it's the OEMs? I don't...

The local storage space on these devices will in the end only be useful for media capture, as future networks will have bandwidth to support streaming media remotely (i.e. iTunes/netflix etc). Content redundancy on a mobile is a waste.

Sony needs to think progressively about the convergence trend - they need a device that integrates psp/smartphone functionality with xbox live networkability.

Once you can roll out your updates over the network... it's a whole new ballgame. Who wants to carry around more than one device anyway - and all this cd/dvd/umd media is so wasteful compared to distributed storage and streaming. SD, CF, CD, etc. hopefully will soon all be antiquated and replaced by 3GPPLTE.

Sorry...

MacNN has r***** writers

I swear to god... everything is a i**** killer.

FYI MacNN Writers - a killer is defined as something that kills. A product that is not on the market is NOT a killer. A device that is released on the market is NOT killer. A device that steals ALL market share away from another device would be considered a killer.

now when youre going to write the word "killer", replace it with rival, challenger, contender, etc.. better yet, take a f'n writing class.

doomed to fail

iPhone killer? Not with WM6 and its craptacular Pocket Internet Explorer on it. If it's running that browser, they just wasted several million $$ on development. Let's hope Ericsson is listening to their neighbours down the road at Opera and put the new Opera Mobile 9.5 on it as the default browser. Otherwise, this thing is doomed to fail as a mobile internet device.

Corporate Blandathon

Blech! When the h*** are companies going to stop this psuedo English naming c***: xperia, my asis (Apple thankfully passed through this god awful phase with its Performas and Centrises). How about mining the English language for some real product names? F**** the Lexus, Accura, Pixma, Optoma, Centrino, Treo, Centro, Zune, et. al.

That said I still want and iPhone (note, not iFon), but this doesn't look too awful (with the exception of the dealbreaking Win-dohs key on the keyboard).

QED

iPhone

I'm confused by the responses in here... Basically... The responses that are hinting that the iPhone is the greatest phone. If you actually were to sit down and talk to APPLE about the iPhone (off the record) they would have to admit the iPhone MISSED THE MARK they had hoped for. The iPhone isn't even the most advanced phone. Sales figures are far ahead of actually activation numbers, which proves that there's an inventory issue. I know people who have iPhones actually HATE them and their limitations. My friend can't stand that he can't even receive pictures multimedia messages, and that's something FREE PHONES offer. He also hates that he cannot use stereo blue tooth headphones with his iPhone because apple won't allow another company to gain sales through the desire to have a stereo bluetooth headset.

The iPod will most likely always be the #1 seller in mp3 players, but only because it had such a HUGE head start. It really isn't the best product. Just the product that EVERYONE already got used to using.

Jelous or envy?

you all do not know what technology is. you think that because yu have an iphone or any other cellphne you have gotten the best, but you are just living in the age of dinosaurs. this cellphone is from countries that have the best in technology. you wish that your piec of junk would do at least 50% of what this cellphone does. you know you should try donatng your iphone to the salvation army or some other pleace because you need technologynot just a piece of metal with third party applications.